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The teeth form each a sub-isosceles triangle, with the edges 

 slightly jagged. The nostrils are greatly developed, and the 

 faculty of smell seems to be very perfect, and, according to 

 Lacepede, enables the animal to discover its prey at a consi- 

 derable distance, and to distinguish it when the sea is greatly 

 agitated by storm, or even in the darkness of night or obscur- 

 est depth of the ocean. By this faculty the shark regulates 

 his movements, and directs his attack ; and the singular fact 

 related by so many travellers, that this shark will take a black 

 man and leave a white, when both are bathing together, or 

 otherwise in his power, may be referred to the perfection of 

 the sense of smell, especially as it seems to be certain, that 

 the emanations from a negro are more odoriferous than from 

 a white. 



A mouth ten feet in circumference can of course take in 

 very large animals, and the throat seems to be capable of 

 considerable distension in swallowing. Brunnich writes of 

 one killed near Marseilles, in the stomach of which, besides 

 several whole fish, was found the entire body of a man ; and 

 Captain Brun relates, that at Surinam one was opened, in 

 which was found the body of a woman entire, except only 

 that the head was severed from it. Muller states, that one 

 was taken off the island of St. Margaret, which weighed 1500 

 pounds, and that the stomach contained the whole body of a 

 horse, which had probably been thrown overboard from some 

 ship. 



The boldness of this animal is equal to its power, and, 

 accordingly, we are told by Sir Charles Douglas, and the 

 fact is confirmed by many naval officers, that little alarmed 

 by the noise and turmoil which attends a general naval en- 

 gagement, the shark may be seen attacking the unhappy 

 wretches whom the destruction of the ship or accident has 

 thrown into the sea. 

 * The French name this terrible animal Requin, from 



